The elevation of the lake is 6,700 feet. It is good for swimming, and its shores offer fine spots for picnicking or camping. Fishing is generally only fair.
This area is dominated by red firs, with lodgepole pine and western white pines. Also characteristic is the pinemat manzanita which forms a carpet on the forest floor, bearing numerous small white blossoms. Cream-colored marshmarigolds, and later white false hellebore, are the most showy of numerous flowers to be seen in moist areas about the lake.
Hat Mountain is the nearby symmetrical, flat-topped cinder cone, rising 1,195 feet above the level of Summit Lake, to the northeast of it.
A trail circles the lake and on the far side of it, heads east to Echo Lake, Twin Lakes, Cinder Cone, and Butte Lake; or to Bear and Cluster Lakes; or to Kings Creek Falls, Warner Valley, and Drakesbad.
(0.4 mile)
MARSHMARIGOLD (cream-colored)
LODGEPOLE PINE (cone 1¼ inches)
37 SUMMIT LAKE RANGER STATION. An emergency telephone is located there.